As the holiday season arrives, media hype over the new action movie remake of King Kong has me and others working for and with gorillas a bit worried.  After all, I’ve spent my lifetime trying to dispel the King Kong myth and now, here we go again, as the blockbuster promises to teach an entirely new generation how big and scary gorillas allegedly are. This time movie makers have joined up with gorilla conservation groups and some of the proceeds will help actual gorillas, which is a nice touch. But I still worry the average person (or someone not reading this website, and thus without any concern or interest in gorillas) will walk away from the movie thinking Kong is a realistic portrayal of the gentle giants they see at their local zoo. It saddens me to no end.

Jabari, the young silverback at the Dallas Zoo (seen in the photo on the left, sent by his former caregiver Vanessa Phelan), wasn’t doing anything wrong when he did a mind-boggling leap out of his enclosure and was shot and killed by overprotective police a couple years ago.  Jabari was just being a gorilla – scared, confused and desperate to get back to a safe and familiar area. Instead, cell phone callers were inundating the authorities with calls of mayhem and madness. In the confusion, mucho macho swat teams came in, saw Jabari do a typical and quite normal mock charge and they blasted him into the middle of next week.  If people understood gorillas better, perhaps they would have listened to the zoo caregivers who knew the animal, and known to give Jabari room and keep quiet, while they got him contained and returned to his enclosure peacefully and with no harm to anyone. But Jabari didn’t have a chance. It was easier to shoot and kill Jabari – an escaped King Kong Klone … sigh.

Recently some morons broke into the Jersey Zoo on the Channel Islands, UK.  They tried breaking down the doors of the gorilla building – what their mission was, we may never know, since the culprits haven’t been caught yet. When they couldn’t get into the door, they climbed onto the roof and started the deafening process of smashing in all the skylights, as the gorillas inside below were traumatized and left exposed to the wintry night weather until the crime was discovered the next morning. According to their caregiver, the entire gorilla family was spooked for days after the incident.

It’s always easier to believe the worst of things. That’s what sells. Telling a story of a peaceful, often non-eventful gorilla wouldn’t make a nickel at the box office and this version of Beauty and the Beast, using a real animal as the basis for their beast, no matter how noble the intention, still could do more harm than good. Gorillas are endangered and without immediate help on the variety of conservation fronts – from sanctuaries to habitat protection to bushmeat awareness, etc, etc. – like Kong, gorillas won’t have much a future.  And that just breaks my heart.

	But I’m still holding out hope and don’t have to look too far to find it.  Zoo Atlanta had twin gorillas born on Halloween (31Oct05) to supermom Kuchi, who’s raising both her son and daughter with the same loving care she’s shown her other children, including Lulu, who had her own baby just a few days after her mom.  Sadly, that baby, a boy who would have been Willie B.’s first grandchild, didn’t survive, which is common for very young first time mothers like Lulu. The photo on the top left was taken from the internet, as Kuchi held her own twin son and daughter, as well as her grandson (Lulu's baby), while a curious Lulu looked on. First time dad, Taz, is doing a great job in his new leadership role, after having spent several years in an all male group next door. The photo below left was taken by us during a visit to Zoo Atlanta on 18Nov05 and shows Taz walking over to see how Kuchi and his twins were doing.  That same day we took the photo of Kudzoo (above right), who had just had her belly shaved for an ultrasound. She looked like she was about to pop any day, and had her baby on December 11th. So far first time mom and baby are doing great and it's hoped Kudzoo will be able to raise her baby, having learned great mothering skills from her own mother, Choomba, seen in the photo on the bottom right with a baby Kudzoo, taken by us in 1994, before we thought we'd be living in Georgia!

We wish our dedicated supporters and gorilla enthusiasts around the globe a very happy holiday season and joyous, healthy and peaceful new year. Joe will celebrate his 43rd year in 2006 and we're hoping to welcome a new gorilla by the spring - more on that in future updates. To close, I want to say a special thank you to our good friend and one of the world's best gorilla caregivers and artists, Richard Johnstone-Scott, who drew this wonderful holiday card, he referred to as a "scribble!".  He gave me permission to post it on our website, as well as to steal his "King Kong Merrily on High" from the famous Christmas Carol (Ding Dong Merrily on High).   Happy Goristmas to all and to all a good night (and go easy on the banana wine ).